How Your Spit Can Lower Your Child's Allergy Risk

A Great Reason to Clean a Pacifier With Spit

Ever use your own mouth to "clean" a fallen pacifier? It may have been a surprisingly smart move!

New research suggests that exposing your baby to the microbes in your saliva boosts her immunity and lowers her allergy risk. As The Huffington Post reportsvia Reuters, a small study in Sweden has found that this fallback "cleaning technique" lowers symptoms of asthma and eczema in young children. And although the researchers concede that other, untested factors could also be at play, allergy specialist Dr. Wilfried Karmaus says that parents at least have the go-ahead to rely on spit: "Parents should know that using their mouth to clean an infant's pacifier may be worth trying — and at the very least, shouldn't be harmful."